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Speaking in Kent yesterday, David Cameron talked about Britain’s ‘social recession’.
His point followed the trial of two brothers, then aged ten and eleven, who subjected two other boys, aged nine and eleven, to what was described as a ‘sadistic’ attack and who have been sentenced to an indefinite period of detention.
In some respects, this morning’s papers may give some backing to what Cameron said:
A woman has been jailed for three years after subjecting her son to ‘enduring’ cruelty by pretending he was severely ill so as to gain publicity and financial rewards; a mother and her brother have been jailed for life for the murder of a man they tortured to death; and the man behind one of the biggest gun smuggling operations in the UK has been jailed for thirty years.
None of these, plus other similar stories in today’s newspapers, make for easy reading, but I don’t think they point to a ‘broken society’ as inferred by David Cameron.
If that were so, people wouldn’t offer themselves as foster parents, volunteer to help those who are disadvantaged or do any of the other things that aim to help others. More importantly, people wouldn’t feel the revulsion that is so apparent from their reaction to such stories.
While people do these charitable things and react with such generosity to disasters such as the one that has engulfed Haiti, British society is not yet broken.
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Speaking in Kent yesterday, David Cameron talked about Britain’s ‘social recession’.
His point followed the trial of two brothers, then aged ten and eleven, who subjected two other boys, aged nine and eleven, to what was described as a ‘sadistic’ attack and who have been sentenced to an indefinite period of detention.
In some respects, this morning’s papers may give some backing to what Cameron said:
A woman has been jailed for three years after subjecting her son to ‘enduring’ cruelty by pretending he was severely ill so as to gain publicity and financial rewards; a mother and her brother have been jailed for life for the murder of a man they tortured to death; and the man behind one of the biggest gun smuggling operations in the UK has been jailed for thirty years.
None of these, plus other similar stories in today’s newspapers, make for easy reading, but I don’t think they point to a ‘broken society’ as inferred by David Cameron.
If that were so, people wouldn’t offer themselves as foster parents, volunteer to help those who are disadvantaged or do any of the other things that aim to help others. More importantly, people wouldn’t feel the revulsion that is so apparent from their reaction to such stories.
While people do these charitable things and react with such generosity to disasters such as the one that has engulfed Haiti, British society is not yet broken.
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